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Old Posted Mar 19, 2014, 1:42 PM
Retired_in_Texas Retired_in_Texas is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tourmaline View Post


If we assume for the moment that the banner is accurate, then the Sailors Three reference is to a one night [stage] show with a large cast at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium. As you note this would be an unlikely venue for the world premier of a British film. Not impossible, but improbable. Not to be unfair toward Long Beach but has it ever been known for World Premiers? IMDB indicates the US release of the British film was in '41.

The title of banner is no guarantee that it refers to the same '40 British film. This would be particularly true if the date of the photo and the show was in '33, as deduced by Dr. Hollywood Graham.

Anecdotally, the late Municipal Auditorium, pictured below, was far more than a '30s movie palace.
"The fill for the auditorium and the Rainbow Pier was begun October 1928 and completed in December 1930. Only then, could the $2.8 million Long Beach Municipal Auditorium, which was financed through a bond issue, be built.

It was completed in late 1931 and officially opened on March 6, 1932. It was mainly a convention center for tournaments, dog shows, tennis matches, fashion shows, auto shows, rabbit shows and American Legion conventions. The biggest crowds have been credited to Jehovah Witness meetings, which now are held in the newer convention center which replaced it.

In March 1947, famed show pianist Liberace supposedly made his stage debut a the Municipal Auditorium as a benefit for the White Shrine as is known as the 'Liberace world tour inaugural' complete with 500 custom pressings of “Warsaw Concerto” and “The Fire Dance,” which were autographed and sold as souvenirs." http://longbeachhistory.wordpress.co...gory/theaters/
Alas, I have been proven wrong in the past.


http://longbeachhistory.files.wordpr...umexterior.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014881.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5271/7...ff8b61fd_b.jpg

I think the screening and/or live performance of "Sailors Three" as implied via the banner may forever remain a mystery. I have looked around the Internet and have found no evidence "Sailors Three" was ever done in live performance anywhere. The screen play was written by the motion picuture's principle actor and director with no mention of it being an adaptation for screen. It is interesting to consider that a single screening and/or live performance would have occurred in any venue, though I suppose a single screening and/or live performance might have occurred at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium due to scheduling. Now if we revisit the photo, we find there is a Vaudeville Theater seen behind the right side of the banner. Could it be a single screening occurred there? Other than adding more speculation to the mystery, it may be time to move on and get to a discussion of the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium which was a magnificent building.

Unfortunately that auditorium was demolished in 1975 to build the Convention & Entertainment Center. http://www.millikanalumni.com/Pike/MunicipalAud.html

Now about the "Warsaw Concerto" which was written for a 1939 British film. It is a magnificent composition that rivals many of Rachmaninoff's works because the composer chose to create it in his style of composition. In the 1950's after lyrics had been added to the introduction theme portion of the composition it was inaccurately rumored by TOP 40 DJ's that it was a never finished Rachmaninoff work. Noop! You may know the recording as "Shangri-La" released in 1957 by a group known as the Four Coins. FYI, there are incorrect references all over the Internet claiming the composition was created in 1946, which it was not. The lyrics for "Shangri-la" were written by the song writing group of
WIDEMAIR, WALTER / GREINER, HANS

Just took another close look at that stinking banner, and the far left side specifically indicates the Municipal Auditorium.
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